US: Airlines get heat from passengers over snowstorm cancellations

US airlines cancelled thousands of flights ahead of Tuesday's blizzard in the northeastern US, but the weaker-than-forecast storm left some passengers complaining the preemptive strategy was too drastic. US airlines canceled nearly 6,500 Tuesday flights, according to tracking service FlightAware.com, a move aimed at avoiding costly delays and passenger inconvenience. "I do believe in some cities this was overly dramatic," Patrick Pryor, a 24-year-old whose flight to Chicago from his home in St. Louis was delayed due to fallout from the storm. "I can 100 percent tell you there was nothing going on in STL for us to sit on the tarmac for over one hour." Major US carriers scrapped all or most of their flights at the three New York-area airports, LaGuardia Airport, John F. Kennedy International and Newark Liberty International, in preparation for the storm. The cancellations were prompted by National Weather Service forecasts on Monday of up to 2 feet (60 cm) of snow in some parts of the Northeast. It scaled back those predictions on Tuesday for places such as New York City, which was due to get between 4 and 8 inches (10 and 20 cm). Scrapping flights hours ahead of a storm lets an airline re-allocate planes and crew earlier, meaning fewer flights and passengers canceled in total as a storm passes. Cancelling early also spares travelers unnecessary trips to the airport and gives them more options to rebook than when faced with a last-minute cancellation.<br/>